Review: Dragon Ball Super – Episode 31

After last week’s debacle, Dragon Ball Super Episode 31 finds itself in dire need of a shot in the arm. With Jaco the Galactic Patrolman prepped for a space quest, now would be the perfect time to get a bit of entertaining filler going before the inter-dimensional martial arts tournament kicks off and we get to the meat of the Universe 6 saga.As always, there will be spoilers bayond this point:

To Lord Zuno! Ask About the Location of the Super Dragon Balls!

“Make a wish Vegeta”. “I wish we could just get to the point already”.

Episode 31 of Dragon Ball Super finds itself in the interesting position that it couldn’t fail to be better than last week’s episode. However, that in itself is a dual edged sword in that there’s also a degree of pressure for the show to pick things up or risk losing viewers.

Refreshingly enough, this episode takes the focus away from Goku and Vegeta, allowing other characters to get their moment in the spotlight. In this case, it is Jaco and Bulma who get to enjoy the lion’s share of screen time. While I use the term ‘enjoy’ here, they really don’t seem to get along at the best of times, much less when they are kooked up in a small spacecraft together whilst embarking on a tedious quest to find the fabled Lord Zuno, a mystic sage who is rumoured to know everything, hopefully including the locations of the Super Dragon Balls.

More of a comedic episode than an action one, Dragon Ball Super Episode 31 relies heavily on boob jokes as its source of humour. While Dragon Ball has always had a penchant for risque comedy, from Master Rochi’s collection of ‘interesting’ magazines to Frieza’s obsession with balls, rarely has it felt so mean-spirited. Bulma finds herself the butt of a lot of the jokes here. It starts off reasonable enough, with Vegeta jealously warning Jaco not to “do anything weird to Bulma on that spaceship”. Of course, Bulma is more than capable of sticking up for herself and beats the tar out of Jaco whenever he makes a pervy comment. However, things take a bit of a sexist turn around the halfway point when jokes about how Bulma is getting old and her boobs are not as perky as they used to be become the staple of the episode’s humour. It’s fairly relentless and not particularly funny. One has to wonder exactly what poor Bulma, a character who has been loved by fans pretty much since the beginning of Dragon Ball, did to the show’s writers to deserve such shabby treatment. For what it’s worth, Bulma isn’t far of 50 at this point and looks absolutely fab.

“I’ll show you old – I’m not even wearing makeup right now!”

A sub-plot involving Jaco catching a wanted criminal named Gekkeman (he is an intergalactic police man after all) gives us the episode’s only action. Jaco dispatches of the perp in effortless and stylish fashion. It’s weird to see him act so badass after spending most of the Resurrection ‘F’ saga cowering in fear. Interestingly, Gekkeman’s garb and general appearance indicates that he was a solider in Frieza’s army once upon a time. It’s a nice nod that we get to see what members of the now disbanded Frieza army get up to now that their cause is lost, but there’s probably nothing further to read into than that.

When Jaco and Bulma do eventually get to meet the fabled Zumo-sama, the whole sequence is somewhat underwhelming. The aforementioned boob jokes aside, the sequence doesn’t really give us a whole lot. Lord Zuno informs us that the Super Dragon Balls were created a long time ago, there are seven of them and that they can be used to grant wishes – all of which was common knowledge before Bulma and Jaco set out on their intergalactic road trip, making the mini-quest somewhat pointless.

While Episode 31 of Dragon Ball Super is certainly an improvement on the installment which preceded it, the bar wasn’t exactly set very high. Light on action and plot progression, as well as heavy on humour which doesn’t really hit the mark, it is pretty much the definition of a sub-par filler episode. The animation is of a pretty high standard throughout, so it gets bonus points for that, even if it is just a case of polishing what is a bit of a turd.

Dragon Ball fans can expect to meet a truckload of new characters in next week’s episode as we are finally introduced to the other warriors taking part in the inter-dimensional martial arts tournament:

Sean is Geek Ireland's resident dinosaur enthusiast, having been fascinated by prehistory since a time before he could read, speak or stand in an upright position (he still struggles to do at least one of these things on a daily basis).
Known as one of the biggest dinosaur fans Ireland has ever produced, Sean has delivered talks on his favourite subject at many venues and events including the Irish Film Institute, the UCD Science Expression Festival, Tayto Park, Dublin Comic Con and even London's Comedy Store.